The Celebration Of An MP Attending The Budget Shortly After The Birth Of His Child Shows Men Still Aren’t Seen As Equal Caregivers

As she spoke, MP Jon Pearce, the recently appointed Labour member of parliament for High Peak, was in attendance. Just hours before, Pearce’s wife had been in hospital giving birth, but the politician had left to be present in parliament.

Initially, Pearce’s presence was hailed as the ultimate commitment to work. The Sun’s political editor Kate Ferguson tweeted, ‘New Labour MP Jon Pearce was in the hospital this morning welcoming his newborn into the world. But he is here for Budget and PMQs. Now that is dedication.’ But at a time when Reeves was trying to argue that both the budget and her being the one to deliver it showed gender roles were being dismantled, Pearce getting back to work so soon after his wife had had a baby sent a worrying message about the expectations facing men when it comes to fatherhood.

Many commenters swiftly responded to the tweet, writing on X that this was ‘not a good thing’. ‘You say that like it's a good thing. It isn't. He should be with his wife and new child, he should not feel that he has to be in work for a budget hours after his baby is born. Other people need him more right now,’ one social media user responded. ‘Work is not more important than the first few hours of your child’s life and your family,’ another echoed.

Pearce is, in fact, one of parliament’s biggest advocates of improving paternity leave. Of course, jokes that Pearce had a ‘two-hour paternity leave’ were just that: jokes. But statutory paternity leave in the UK is the worst in Europe, with new dads entitled to a maximum of two weeks’ paid leave, at a maximum rate of £184 a week. According to a 2022 report, 49 percent of organisations follow this minimum paternity leave policy to this minimum, with only 13 percent of companies offering between five and 28 weeks. Thanks to these paltry figures, a recent study found that one in three UK fathers took no paternity leave after the birth of their child.

Pearce is someone who has proudly advocated about improving paternity leave. Hours before his wife gave birth, the MP had penned a piece for local publication the Buxton Advertiser, where he’d explained that he’d had to declare his wife’s pregnancy as a personal interest during a recent debate on paternity leave.

Highlighting the paltry statutory pay, he wrote, ‘This lack of support has so many unintended consequences not just for the dads but also children and especially the mums. In the debate I gave the example that after a woman has a caesarean section, the medical advice is not to drive for up to six weeks. In some of our towns and villages here in High Peak if you cannot drive you may not be able to go shopping or do the school run for the new baby’s siblings.’

Clearly, Pearce will be taking paternity leave and continuing to campaign for more support when he returns to work. Him choosing to attend the budget doesn’t undo that. But the celebration around him doing so entrenches ideas that men are the expendable parent, and encourages people to applaud dads for being committed to work above all else.

Labour has committed to review paternity leave during its first year in power, but this wasn’t achieved in the autumn budget. Maternity pay, too, remains the same. While the minimum wage has been raised, which will positively impact new parents in low paid work, charity Maternity Action have said that the lack of increase equates to a real-cost fall in line with inflation.

Given Pearce’s commitment to supporting increased paternity leave, it doesn’t seem unlikely that the Labour MP will use his experience of returning to work hours after his child was born to bolster the cause. Maybe his wife said it was OK for him to go. Maybe he felt it was important that as a new MP, he was there for the budget. Either way, let's hope the noise it has caused has helped to raise awareness on a crucially important issue on: that there's still a way to go before men are seen as equal caregivers.